Guides to cutting long videos into shorts.
The questions that come up when a long recording becomes vertical clips: how long each platform lets a clip run, how many shorts an hour holds, how captions follow the voice. Each guide gives a short answer first, then the detail, and lists the official pages it relies on with the day each one was read.
How long can a YouTube Short be in 2026, and what length suits a clip from a long video?
YouTube Shorts can run up to three minutes if square or vertical. The official rules, checked September 2026, and how long to make a clip from a long video.
How long can an Instagram Reel be, and what size should it be?
Instagram Reels can run 20 minutes, but past 3 minutes they aren't recommended to non-followers. Ratio, fps, resolution, cover, file size: checked Sept 2026.
How long can a TikTok video be, and what format should clips use?
TikTok length limits as of September 2026: 10 min recorded in app, 60 min uploaded, and 30 or 60 min on the web, as TikTok's pages disagree. Plus format advice.
How many shorts can you get from a one-hour video?
How many vertical shorts to cut from a one-hour talk, podcast or course, how long each one should run, and what YouTube, TikTok and Instagram allow.
How are word-by-word captions timed, and which caption style should I use?
How word-by-word captions are timed from a transcript, how words are grouped on screen, and how to choose between four caption styles for vertical shorts.
Start with a video you already have.
60 credits are free at sign-up, no card. One credit is one minute of source video, whatever the number of shorts.